Adventure with Heartless
by Basil's Angel of Music
Summary: Sora, Donald and Goofy have just left Radiant Garden in the Gummi Ship after yet again having to help Leon and the gang with Heartless terrorizing the town when they stumble a upon a strange new world; a world called Blood Island. I own nothing. The characters in this fic belong to Aardman, Gideon Defoe, Disney and Square Enix.
1. Chapter 1

The Gummi Ship had just taken off from Radient Garden after Sora, Donald and Goofy had to help Leon and the gang out once again with Heartless terrorising the town. A strange looking new world suddenly appeared on their world metre, which looked bit like a Victorian city and a tropical island on top of an oddly shaped golden skull figure with a large ruby in one of its eye sockets. To top it off, there was a boat that looked pretty worn down sailing around both city and island.

"Gawrsh, that world looks kinda strange, don't ya think?" remarked Goofy as he, Sora and Donald just stared at the new world on the metre.

"Yeah," agreed Sora, nodding his head. "Looks pretty cool though."

"What's it called?" asked Donald.

"Let's see..." said Sora, leaning forward to take a closer look. "Hmm... Blood Island. That's a pretty weird name."

"Let's go check it out," said Donald.

"Right," replied Sora. "But first, we gotta go through that Gummi Route."

"Good job, Sora!" cried Goofy ecstatically after they blasted through that army of Heartless in their little ship through the Gummi Route.

"Thanks, Goofy," replied Sora, smiling. "Now, let's check out this new world."

Upon entering this new world, all they could see at first was just sky and ocean. The trio just looked around out the cockpit window, but there was no sign of life anywhere.

"Doesn't seem to be anythin' much here," said Goofy.

"Maybe we'll find something if we just keep looking," suggested Sora.

"Look!" cried Donald suddenly, pointing out towards the horizon. His companions looked in the direction he was pointing and could just make out the silhouette of a ship in the distance.

"Come on, let's go!" said Sora, before driving the Gummi Ship towards the silhouette.

Finally reaching the ship, Sora halted the Gummi Ship just close enough to it for them to see exactly what kind of ship it was without being seen. It was the same worn out ship they had seen sailing around the Victorian city and tropical island they saw before. The trio looked on in shock when they saw a small man with a large head, bound up and holding an open book in one hand and a quill in the other, being forced along a wooden plank sticking out of one side of the ship by two pirates. One of them, who wore a bright red woollen scarf which stood out from his tatty blue Navy uniform, was holding onto the railing and appeared to have an apologetic look on his face. The other one, with a surprisingly feminine figure and a red beard which didn't seem to match his blonde hair, had a fiercer expression as he glared at the man on the plank, pointing his cutlass at him to make him jump further out. A couple of other pirates stood at the railing and watched excitedly.

"Pirates!" cried Goofy in fear.

Sora glared angrily at the scene in front of them. "We'd better go help that guy out," he said. "Come on!"

"Look, I'm really sorry about this, Mr. Darwin," said the scarfed pirate to the man on the plank. "But it's nothing personal, you see. It's just that it's been a tough week and a good plank walk usually cheers the Pirate Captain here up." As he said that last sentence, he gestured back to his captain, who was seated in a deck chair and petulantly reading a magazine. He wore a red coat which looked as if it was of a better cut than the outfits his crew wore and had an incredibly glossy and luxuriant auburn beard.

The scarfed pirate's surprisingly curvaceous companion continued to threaten the man on the plank with his cutlass. When he was just at the end of the plank, his bottom lip began to tremble as he miserably started to write something into his little notebook.

"Oh, just get on with it!" scowled the Pirate Captain irritably before going back to his magazine.

The somewhat feminine pirate was just about to stomp his foot onto the plank to send their prisoner tumbling into the waters below when he heard a voice crying, "Hey, stop!". The pirates all turned to the direction of the voice and saw, to their surprise, Sora, Donald and Goofy just landing on the deck of the boat and running up towards them.

The Pirate Captain groaned. "Oh, what's this now?" he asked in the same annoyed tone as before. "Some kind of rescue committee or something? And how in Neptune's name did they get on my ship?"

The scarfed pirate just turned towards the Captain and shrugged his shoulders, evidently as confused about the trio's sudden arrival as the rest of the pirates were.

The man on the plank also just stared at the strange trio, wondering where they had come from until he heard a loud squawk coming from back on the deck of the boat. He turned his gaze towards the Captain and his surprise increased when he saw a grey dodo perched on his lap, a contented smile on its face as its master gently stroked its feathers.

"S-stop! Wait!" he cried. "Th-that bird!"

The Pirate Captain turned back towards his prisoner. "What? My parrot?" he asked. "What about her? She's just big-boned!" he said defensively, tightening his embrace around his pet.

"No! No, no, no, no, no, no, you don't understand!" cried the man again. "She's not a parrot!"

"Not a parrot?" asked the Captain, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "What's he on about, old girl?" he then asked his "parrot" affectionately, tickling her under her chin.

"Why, she's the... scientific discovery of our age!" replied the man excitedly. "She's a d – Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh!"

His scream was immediately followed by a loud _splash! _and everyone turned to see that he had gone.

"Sorry," said the feminine sheepishly, in a voice equally as feminine as his figure. "It's just... that's my favourite bit."

Sora growled quietly to himself before dashing forward towards the plank.

"Sora!" cried Goofy as he and Donald chased after him, but their friend and already dived off the plank and into the water to save the man who had just been shaken off the plank. After the boy had disappeared under the surface, the pirates all just stared surprised and confused down at the large ripples he had left stretching eternally out into the distance.

"Goodness..." said the scarfed pirate, shaking his head. "What's gotten into _him_?"

The Pirate Captain held out his "parrot" in front of him, just looking at her is if inspecting her. "A dodo, you say?" he asked his prisoner, who had just been helped back onto the boat by Sora.

"Yes, a bird that's been extinct for about a hundred and fifty years," said the little man, who had, just a moment ago, introduced himself to his rescuer as Charles Darwin. "To find one alive today is really quite incredible!"

"Oh, clever old girl!" said the Captain to his dodo, impressed. "Not going extinct."

"I-if... If I might be so bold," stuttered Charles nervously. "I-I would be more than willing to pay you ten pounds for your dear Polly."

Just then, the entire pirate crew burst into fits of hysterical laughter, making poor Charles feel quite awkward. Even the scarfed pirate, who so far seemed to be the most level-headed member of said crew, seemed amused as he chuckled to himself and shook his head before answering, "Sorry, Mr. Darwin, but I'm afraid Polly's not for sale."

"Ten pound!" guffawed a pirate with a large build who was supporting himself with a crutch, nudging Charles in the side. "She's one of the family."

"Yeah, she's like an auntie... with a beak," added a young pirate with very pale skin and red eyes, unknowingly earning himself a deathly glare from Donald.

"Yes, I'm afraid they're right, Charles," said the Pirate Captain apologetically. "Polly here is the feathery heart and soul of the boat, so parting with her is completely out of the question. Come along now, little dodo."

And with that, the Pirate Captain turned and took Polly into his cabin. His scarf-wearing companion followed him inside, but before he could close the door, Charles had rushed after them and snuck in. Sora, Donald and Goofy went up to the other pirates and just stared at the door to the cabin, confused.

"What's... going on?" asked Sora, tilting his head to the side.


	2. Chapter 2

"P-please, Captain!" panted Charles Darwin, rushing into the Pirate Captain's cabin just as the Pirate with a Scarf was just about to close the door behind him. "It's such a missed opportunity for me, if I could've presented Polly in London to the Royal Society at their annual science show..."

"Ha! No question of that, I'm afraid," scoffed the Pirate Captain, having just perched Polly onto a large globe and was now feeding her ship's biscuits.

"Oh, but she'd be an absolute sensation!" pleaded Charles further. "Not to mention a shoo-in for the top prize!"

Just then, the Captain paused in his feeding Polly and turned round to face the little man, now somewhat interested. "Prize, you say?"

"For... Best Scientific Discovery, yes," answered Charles, nodding enthusiastically.

"Hm..." At this point, the Pirate Captain began stroking his luxuriant beard as he took a minute to think. "This prize, Charles... Valuable, is it?"

"Valuable?" repeated Charles, chuckling. "Why, it's _priceless! _Untold riches!"

The Pirate Captain's eyes immediately lit up. Did he hear that right? Untold riches? Had he finally found a way to help him earn the right amount of booty to win him that other prize he was after?

"Captain, please!" begged the Pirate with a Scarf, stepping forward, obviously knowing what the Captain was thinking. "Not London! Not the home of Queen Victoria, mortal enemy of pirates everywhere! If we get caught, we'll all end up hanged in execution dock!"

"Psh! Don't be such a mouse, Number Two!" scoffed the Captain again, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. "We _laugh _in the face of danger, remember?" He had just walked past his first mate when the younger pirate turned and placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"But, Captain!" he said. "Don't you remember that talk we had? About trying to avoid hair-brained schemes that end in us facing certain death?"

"You heard him, Number Two!" answered the Pirate Captain, turning to face the Pirate with a Scarf. "Untold riches! This is the plan: We got to London, win this science show thing-a-me-jig, take the prize money, enter the Pirate of the Year, I win! Bingo!"

"B-but, Captain," stuttered the Pirate with a Scarf. "I don't think -"

"Bravo, Captain!" interrupted Charles, clapping excitedly. "I see you're a... a man of vision!"

"Well, thank you, Charles," replied the Pirate Captain, giving a slight bow before turning and making his way towards this desk. As Charles Darwin followed, the Pirate with a Scarf reached a hand out to the Captain and opened his mouth as if about to speak, but seeing that his captain had made up his mind, he stopped and instead gave out a quiet frustrated sigh as he shook his head irritably.

"What does that Charles Darwin guy want with your parrot, dodo, or... whatever?" asked Sora, his eyes still on the door to the Pirate Captain's cabin.

"Your guess is as good as mine, Sora," answered the Pirate with Gout, staring in the same direction the boy was looking.

"So... what exactly _is _going on around here?" It was Goofy's turn to ask a question.

"Oh, that's a bit of a long story," replied the Pirate with Gout, turning to face the trio. "But if you lads've got time, I'd be happy to elucidate."

At that moment, Sora, Donald and Goofy all sat down on barrels, eager to hear the whole story.

"Right," said the Pirate with Gout, nodding his head. "The Pirate Captain here has been trying to win this Pirate of the Year competition for years."

"But he's been bested by one of the three other captains who are always entering too," added the Albino Pirate sadly. "Peg Leg Hastings, Cutlass Liz and Black Bellamy."

"However," the Pirate with Gout went on. "This year, the Captain is more determined than ever to win the prize for himself for once, to prove to the others that he's not the sorry, washed up loser that like to think he is. So for the past week or so, we have looted many ships, hoping to plunder ourselves plenty of booty, enough to win the Captain that prize, but so far we've had no such luck."

"The Captain had just about given up hope, until we spotted Mr. Darwin's ship in the horizon!" said the Pirate who Likes Sunsets and Kittens. "When we sent the Pirate with a Scarf in to inform him, the Captain came out a few minutes later and eagerly ordered us to attack it!"

"But, as it turns out," continued the Pirate with Gout, shaking his head sadly. "Mr. Darwin didn't have any treasure for us to plunder either."

"So... is that why he tried to make him walk the plank?" asked Sora.

"Well, as the Pirate with a Scarf said," answered the Pirate with Gout. "It had been a tough week for us, so he ordered us to have Mr. Darwin walk the plank in hopes that it would cheer the Captain up."

"Gawrsh!" said Goofy. "Isn't that a little... uh... extreme?"

"Well, what do you expect?" asked the Pirate with Gout. "We are pirates after all."

"Oh well, I suppose so," answered Goofy, uncertainly.

"Hm..." Sora just sat still with his hand to chin as he took a moment to think before standing up. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

His question earned a really surprised reaction from both his companions, who just gasped and stared up at him in wide-eyed shock.

The Pirate with Gout sighed. "Not unless you can help us find a ship packed full of gold and jewels to take back to Blood Island with us," he said sadly, shaking his head again.

"Well, we do sort of have a ship of our own," explained Sora. "But it's more of a kind of airship, if you get what I mean. Would that be of any use to -"

Before Sora could finish his sentence, Donald and Goofy both grabbed an arm each and turned him round to face them.

"Sora, do you really think that this is such a good idea?" asked Donald, sternly.

"Yeah," agreed Goofy nervously. "I mean, they are pirates after all. Remember the ones in Neverland and Port Royal?"

"Hey, I know we've encountered pirates before on previous quests," whispered Sora. "Most of which were bad news, but these guys seem kinda... all right somehow."

Donald and Goofy just stared at each other, both with a look of uncertainty in their eyes.

"Look, I'm not sure what it is, either," Sora went on. "But I really dothink we can trust these guys. Plus, I kinda wanna just... help them out, you know? So, you with me?"

After a few more seconds, Donald and Goofy looked up at him and nodded, obviously now agreeing that these particular pirates do seem very different from the ones they had encountered before.

"Sure thing, Sora!" answered Goofy cheerfully. "All for one and one for all, after all?"

"Great!" chirped Sora happily. He turned back round to face the pirates again. "So it's settled then. We'll help your Captain win that prize in any way we can!"

The pirates all cheered at Sora's announcement, but were immediately interrupted when the door to the Pirate Captain's cabin opened. The Captain himself then emerged, with Polly hooked under his arm, a large grin on his luxuriantly bearded face. He was immediately followed by Charles Darwin and the Pirate with a Scarf.

"New plan, lads!" he announced. "We're taking Charles here back to London, where a science competition is being held a week tomorrow. Charles says that Polly will win us first prize in said competition, and that very prize could be just the thing we need to win us that Pirate of the Year award!"

The pirates all looked at each other with fear in their eyes, muttering to one another.

"It's all right, lads!" said the Captain reassuringly to his crew. "I know what you're all thinking. But don't worry, just leave everything to me, and everything will go just as planned! As soon as we all get back to Blood Island with that prize money, that trophy will be on my cabinet before you can say 'scurvy knaves'!"

And with that, the entire crew erupted in cheers once more. Sora just turned from them and his eyes fell upon the Pirate with a Scarf, who just closed his eyes and shook his head, as if in doubt about the Captain's whole plan. Then he looked at Charles Darwin, who appeared to be rubbing his hands together, grinning triumphantly. This caused him to have the same doubts about this whole thing he was sure the Pirate with a Scarf must've been having. Maybe this plan of the Pirate Captain's really wasn't such a good idea after all.


End file.
